visa refusal

[emilyrosal]

Originally posted by rl_bright78@Jan 3 2006, 10:13 PM
We're planning to club together to get them to HK for a short trip. Like you said hopefully this will help build up some trust.

Any idea how they can get an interview as a couple?
My sister & BIL know a number of other missionaries who have managed to get tourist visas with alot less information than they have given the embassy. Speaking to them last night, i think we've decided to go to appeal with a large wave of additional letter to show how mich support they have, plus one from our local MP who has pledged his support. The charity are sending a letter to explain that the flight to UK is part of thier contract. Hopefully the fact that they can give so much additional info will count for something. Plus a letter from Phil. immigration showing my sis is applying for permenent residency.

We are very commited to making this happen, however long it takes!

Quoted post

HI this is Emily......wife of "the brother-in-law"

Thanks everyone for all the advice. It was a big disappointment being refused a visa for my husband but we're not giving up. We have our appeal at the end of the month. The paperwork that the Embassy gave me dosnt actually tell you anything!
It just talkes about filling in the application form and choosing between a oral hearing or a written one. Any adviice on this?

The resons given for my husbands refusal where because they couldnt find a valid reason why the charity would pay for his airfare. I would like to point out that my salary is payed by the charity, but i think you would all agree $200 is a minimum wage. Futhermore EVERY penny of that money comes in through directly from people who sponsor me personally. In no way is it taken our of money from generall donations!!! Just to clear that up.......

However my husband owns his own car, motorbike we rent a 4 bedroom house that we have paied rent on untill the end of April. He also owns one hectar of land. My husbands family is very wealthy and we gave the embassy evidence of this also.

There 2nd problem was that me visa extention was only untill Jan and is not a perminant residence visa. The embassy asked for my passport and they could see that for the past 4 years i have always renewed my visa the same way when i enter the phill. However my immigration officer is willing to give give me another 6 month extention on my visa and has written a letter of explantion that i am in the process of attaing my residency here.


Any other info of things i can do to would be great. Our local mayor is also writting a letter for me and also the local DSWD (social services) where i work with running projects with teenage mums and street kids.

Thanks for all the help........nice to know people care!!!

John, how you doing? small world! Rhea is looking amazing but really missing u! hurry up and get back........she burst into tears last time i saw her coz she missed you so much!!!!

[ginapeterb]

Originally posted by emilyrosal@Jan 3 2006, 03:06 PM
HI this is Emily......wife of "the brother-in-law"

Thanks everyone for all the advice. It was a big disappointment being refused a visa for my husband but we're not giving up. We have our appeal at the end of the month. The paperwork that the Embassy gave me dosnt actually tell you anything!
It just talkes about filling in the application form and choosing between a oral hearing or a written one. Any adviice on this?

The resons given for my husbands refusal where because they couldnt find a valid reason why the charity would pay for his airfare. I would like to point out that my salary is payed by the charity, but i think you would all agree $200 is a minimum wage. Futhermore EVERY penny of that money comes in through directly from people who sponsor me personally. In no way is it taken our of money from generall donations!!! Just to clear that up.......

However my husband owns his own car, motorbike we rent a 4 bedroom house that we have paied rent on untill the end of April. He also owns one hectar of land. My husbands family is very wealthy and we gave the embassy evidence of this also.

There 2nd problem was that me visa extention was only untill Jan and is not a perminant residence visa. The embassy asked for my passport and they could see that for the past 4 years i have always renewed my visa the same way when i enter the phill. However my immigration officer is willing to give give me another 6 month extention on my visa and has written a letter of explantion that i am in the process of attaing my residency here.
Any other info of things i can do to would be great. Our local mayor is also writting a letter for me and also the local DSWD (social services) where i work with running projects with teenage mums and street kids.

Thanks for all the help........nice to know people care!!!

John, how you doing? small world! Rhea is looking amazing but really missing u! hurry up and get back........she burst into tears last time i saw her coz she missed you so much!!!!

Quoted post

Hello Emily,

Thanks for coming on to the Forum, its great to see you looking in on us from the Philippines, and both Gina (my Asawa) and I..plus my other colleagues on this forum, Rob and Keith and our respective asawas, would very much sympathise with your dillema, trust me when I tell you we do care here about situations such as yours, what you will find with us, is that we spend alot of time trying to offer suggestions on how you can achieve the result you want with our good freinds in Manila, the Entry Clearance Officers, at some stage in the past, many of us have had the Royal run around of all time, I can speak from experience with that, so can Rob, and Keith and many others, so trust me when I tell you, we know exactly what you are going through.

What we do tend to deal with here on the Forum tend to be Spouse and Fiancee visa situations, although tourist visa applications are increasingly becoming part of our portfolio here at FilipinoUK, my own website is really geared up to helping British male/females who are presently settled here in the UK, to get through the visa process at our Embassy in Manila.

I understand from reading between the lines, that you work in the Philippines for a registered Charity, and your husband is a Filipino, I wouldnt get to much into the charity situation, its of no consequence to us, or any of our business how much you are paid, or what the basis on which your salary is paid, what is most important is that your husband continues to be denied entry to UK as a bona fida tourist.

If you saw my earlier post, I wrote a peice about why I think the visa is being continuously denied, which is here, perhaps you can glance through this before we go any further.

1. Your Sister is married to a Filipino.

2. He applied for a tourist visa prior to the marriage ?

3. That visa was refused.

4. Recent your Brother in Law applied for a tourist visa to make a trip to UK over the xmas period.

5. That visa was also denied ?

6. Your Brother in Laws Charity have paid for his air ticket, and pledged support.

7. Your other Sister and her husband has also pledged support and are wealthy enough to support your Brother in Law whilst he is visiting UK.


Ok, based on the following information I would give you the reason why your Brother In law is being declined a visa.


Firstly the Entry Clearance Officer has to be satisfied that their are compelling reasons for your Brother in Law to return to the Philippines at the end of his vist, the fact that he is married to a British Citizen is not valid, since your sister is not presently settled in the United Kingdom.

If your Sister was presently settled in the United Kingdom, she would need to demonstrate that she is well capable of supporting your brother in law, since she is in the Philippines and has been so for a number of years, she sadly does not meet the rules, by simply being a British Passport holder.

Secondly, your brother in law is applying for a visitors visa, visitors visa's have seperate rules to fiancee and spouse visas, the rules vary and have one distiinct difference and that is this.

For a visitors visa, the applicant visitor, cannot recieve guarantees of support from anyone in the United Kingdom, therefore your wealthy sister and her husband are not allowed to pledge support, the applicant must demonstrate adequate funds in their own bank account and compelling reasons to return, such as a bona fida employment status, with savings, probably in excess of 500,000 Php, A Visitor is not allowed to receive guarantees from anyone in the UK, and UK Relatives may not give guarantees of sponsorshop or to guarantee a paticular applicants return to the citizens country at the end of their stay.

The Entry Clearance officer, no doubt refused the visa, because of the following points.

1. The Applicant has failed to satisfy the requirements on adequate funds to allow bona fida tourist status.

2. The Applicant has failed to demonstrate that their are compelling reasons for the applicant to return to his country of citizenship.


All of these letters that are being sent, are to no avail, sadly, the rules do not cater for these letters, I think unless your brother in law, can demonstate adequate savings, and compelling reasons to return to the Philippines, he will continue to be denied a visa.

You have the right of appeal, but I wouldnt bother with that, this takes time, and will result in your brother in law loosing the appeal, unless their is information to hand, which the Entry Clearance Officer dit not take into consideration.

Im sorry I cant be more positive, but to be honest, youre not showing me anything to be positive about, unless your sister moves back to UK and gets a job, and then applies for a Settlement visa for your brother in law, there is no where to go.

to take this a stage further, Entry Clearance Officers make summary judgements at the overseas mission on whether to grant a visa based on 2 major rules.

The 1st one is balance of probability.

You can read a litle about this on my own personal webiste for British nationals at

http://www.british-filipino.com/britemb1.html

just load this page and follow the subject matter through 3 pages, there is also a help page on that thread at http://www.british-filipino.com/visarefusals.html

Although I suspect, there will be little comfort from this, the 2nd rule, is compelling reasons to return to the host country.

This is because they may consider that your husband has no reasons to return to the Philippines, even though he may own land, which you have clearly shown, Im even suprised that the Embassy gave you the right to appeal this decision.

Please forgive me if Im teaching you to suck eggs, but just check to ensure you have the right of appeal, as certain types of visas do not attract the right of appeal, for example, the only ones are normally to visit relatives, such as Mother, Father, husband wife, etc, in this case your husband is with you in the Philippines, and although you might be applying for residency in the Philippines, that is not much of interest to the Entry Clearance Officer since you are entitled to enter the United Kingdom as much as you please, technically you may not be classed as a resident and felt you may have lost your right to NHS Treatment, I doubt very much whether in practice that would be applied.

If you have the right of appeal in your husbands case, even though a member of parliament may support you, his or her letter generally will be placed on the file if their is an appeal, whether it will have any merit in an appeal decision, is not something we have any experience of, for an appeal to be successful, the ajudicators who sit in appeals, who by the way are generally members of the judiciary or practicing Immigration lawyers, will have to see that their is compelling evidence not seen at the time of the visa application that might be taken into consideration, to do this, they must have a written set of reasons from the Entry Clearance officer why he or she felt that to issue a visa was not appropriate, the easiest one for them is generally considered to be "The applicant has not demonstrated compelling reasons for them to return home."

All appeals are handled in the United Kingdom by the Asylum and Immigration appeals tribunal, and you can obtain all the necessary information from my website at

http://www.british-filipino.com/visarefusals.html

on this page, their is also links to what you can do in the event of a refusal, and other organizations that can help you, I would suggest you get in touch with the Immigration Advisory service in the UK, they can take up your case, and the information for this is on my page also, appeals can be very expensive, somewhere in the region of £2000.00 for an appeal to be lodged, you mention that you were asked if you wanted to have a written or oral appeal, since you are in the Philippines you might wish to opt for a written appeal, however at an oral appeal, you may have the chance to speak as does your representative.

Secondly, you might wish to know, that appeals can take from 8 to 12 months to be heard at the AIAT in the UK, this does see rather a long wait for this type of visa, when I last spoke to an Immigration lawyer, who is familiar with this, they said relative appeals are about 6 months at present, you may feel that an appeal is your only option, sadly Entry CLearance Officers so seem to act arbitrarily in these matters, but I wish I could help more with this for you, I cannot think of anything else you can do, but I hope this helps to explain maybe why this is happening.

Please feel free to ask any questions if you want anything answered, the one thing you wont get from me, is flippant comments.

Best wishes

Peter and Gina